museum's facilities. Museum scope Emphases of the Palm Springs Art Museum developed into three areas: Art: contemporary art, sculpture, studio art glass, and architecture archives Natural Science Performing Arts Educational programs related to each of the three disciplines were planned, and the new Palm Springs Desert Museum opened to the public in January 1976. The museum expanded again in 1982 with the addition of the Denney Western American Art Wing, the museum was renamed the Palm Springs Art Museum, and classic American western art was added to the collection's fine art emphasis. Art and natural science The permanent collection consists of more than 24,000 objects. 12,000 objects include fine art, fine art photography, photographic archives, Native American art, Mesoamerican art and artifacts from other cultures. The natural science collections are categorized in geology, biology and archaeology. 12,000 specimens include ceramics, lithics, tools, weapons, minerals, fossils, rocks, casts of fossils, herbaria, mounted invertebrates, preserved amphibians and reptiles, study skins and whole mounts of birds and mammals. Notable artists Noted landscape artists with works displayed or curated by the museum include: John James Audubon Carl Oscar Borg Alson S. Clark Edward S. Curtis Carl Eytel Nicolai Fechin Leon Gaspard Philip R. Goodwin Paul A. Grimm Woody Gwyn Thomas Hill Grace Carpenter Hudson Frank Tenney Johnson William Keith Sydney Laurence George Montgomery Thomas Moran Edgar Alwin Payne Agnes Pelton Frederic Remington Carl Rungius Charles Marion Russell Millard Sheets James Swinnerton Walter Ufer Harold Joe Waldrum Stephen H. Willlard Performing arts The intimate 437-seat Annenberg Theater presents internationally known performers and concert artists in music, dance and theater. Growth and accreditation The museum received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 1982. The museum building had originally been designed with the possibility of adding a third level. The need for more exhibition space and educational facilities was recognized by the Board of Trustees, noting increased population and tourism in the Coachella Valley, in addition to the museum's growing collection. An expansion project was initiated with a gift of $1.5 million seed money and a donation of 132 artworks from the personal collection of designer and collector Steve Chase. The Steve Chase Art Wing and Education Center, also designed by E. Stewart Williams, opened in November 1996. The expansion included 25,000 additional square feet of gallery space, a mezzanine, a sculpture terrace, four classrooms, two art storage vaults, and a 90-seat lecture hall. The